


Friends Come in Shades of Red

by Millixi77



Series: Eye Squad Telepathy [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Friendship, Gen, mentions of past bullying, no worries the bullies are stopped in their tracks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 14:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15026402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Millixi77/pseuds/Millixi77
Summary: Kiyotaka Ishimaru was once an easy target for bullies. Ever since he was a child, they just wouldn't stop and leave him alone. He'd thought he'd been doomed to suffer at their hands for all his life. At least, that's what he thought, until he came to Hope's Peak Academy. Things rapidly changed for the better, and he can't help but think over how it all started.





	Friends Come in Shades of Red

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this came on Discord, today, a few hours ago, and I was instantly compelled to write it. @Despairyeeto, thank you for pitching the idea!

Taka looked left, looked right and sighed. The coast was clear. He mentally sighed in relief as he walked down the quiet hallways, still being vigilant. It had become a habit for him, even though nowadays it was mostly unneeded for him. Old habits die hard. 

 

_ (This was the last hallway patrol he had for the day; it was very unlikely for him to run into someone right now, thoughtless of someone with malicious intent.) _

 

During his first year, some of the people at Hope’s Peak had… taken a disliking to him, to be frank. They were nothing bullies, targeting him just because he did his best to ensure people followed the rules.  _ (They called him overbearing, pushy, idiotic, and all kinds of things he didn’t even want to repeat in his mind.) _

 

He had to be more careful while he patrolled the hallways. Even though people were, thankfully, following the rules more thanks to him _ (because they didn’t want to deal with him) _ , some people purposefully attempted to ambush him. In the beginning, it did not happen often and neither did it usually succeed, but he remained vigilant. 

 

_ (Even when it got worse he was sure his vigilance had gotten him out of a few uncomfortable situations, he was sure of it.) _

 

Anyway, wasn’t as bad as it was in middle school. He shuddered when he remembered those days: his homework was always tossed into muddy puddles, his backpack thrown into the trash can, his gym uniform tossed in the toilet, and his lunch always going missing, or getting pulverized. His locker had been vandalized more than he cared to count, and all  kinds of nasty surprises had been planted there over the years.  _ (The saying ‘kids were cruel’ was all too apt in that situation.) _

 

The only reason why he hadn’t gotten beaten up on a regular basis was because he’d quickly increased his athletic prowess during that time. Now he could proudly say he was one of the best runners on the Hope’s Peak track team. Not to say that he hadn’t gotten beaten up at all, but he’d managed to outrun the bullies a few times.  _ (By the skin of his teeth.) _

 

He shuddered. He hadn’t been safe from scorn from the teachers either, thanks to his grandfather’s scandal. Back in both elementary and middle school, he had always felt alone. And if the other children weren’t gossipping about him, they were actively avoiding him or actively trying to hurt him.  _ (And from there, he learned how to hide bruises and cuts; they only caused more trouble when they were exposed)  _

 

But that had changed once he came to Hope’s Peak. He’d finally managed to meet people who didn’t constantly judge him based on his attitude and his family’s tarnished reputation. Even though he was overbearing at times, his friends helped him become less so, and it made him feel both happy and wanted. Especially his kyoudai. When he’d told Mondo about what his past had been like, and how it had carried on even now, it was almost as if a protective instinct had been awoken in him.

 

From then on, Mondo had ensured he was safe whenever he could, and had shown those bullies that if they tried to prey on Taka while he was around, they would suffer dearly. For a while, it had worked and the bullies seemed to disappear.

 

_ (It had been too perfect he should have been suspicious) _ Then they started attacking him when Mondo wasn’t around, and a few of them who Mondo had ‘taught a lesson to’ had been particularly vengeful. ( _ It had been immensely difficult to hide those injuries… ) _

 

In the end, it had soon become a cycle of being protected and exposed, with frequent ambushes.  Once, when Mondo wasn’t around, almost all of his current bullies had cornered him in a hallway. He’d been sure he would be sent to the hospital by the end of that beating, if he survived in the first place.

 

He’d cringed, waiting for the first blows to strike when…

 

When....

 

When one of the most unbelievable things had happened. 

 

An upperclassman, Peko Pekoyama, suddenly came out from absolutely  _ nowhere  _ and knocked them all down in three minutes flat. When she’d turned towards him, he’d been ready to faint out of fear. Luckily, he hadn’t fainted.

 

So she was able to explain just how she’d been able to come to his rescue. 

 

All people with at least one red eye had a telepathic link with one another that they could use to communicate with. She and Gundham had discovered this last year, and they’d originally thought that it was limited between them until Celestia Ludenberg had suddenly made an unexpected comment during a telepathic conversation.

 

_ (They’d originally thought she’d been wearing contacts. They’d been mistaken.)  _

 

The telepathy worked oddly. No one could consciously initiate the telepathic connection. It happened randomly. It could form during a moment of great danger, during a conversation or when you were daydreaming. Anytime, really. They’d been waiting for when he would finally discover the link, but none of them had expected something like that to be happening to him.

 

At that moment, both Gundham and Celestia both ran into the hallway, looking shocked. Peko had quickly explained the situation to them, and both of them were definitely not happy about it.

 

From then on, he’d gained a new set of protectors. More than that, he’d gained new friends.

 

Gundham was a bit hard to talk to at first, because of how he spoke. Eventually, after he’d learnt to understand the Ultimate Animal Breeder, it had become very easy and entertaining to talk to him. Not only that, but the animals Gundham cared for were admittedly very tame and nice to be around, especially the hamsters.  _ (He was considering getting a pet once he had enough money for one.) _

 

Peko had been easier for him to talk with, and they had a lot in common, from a strong work ethic to similar views on rules and ideal societal structure. Even though she did (technically) work for the Kuzuruyuu mafia, she was still a good person at heart.

 

Celestia had been a bit more difficult, what with their wildly varying morals. However, they’d soon found some way to relate to one another pretty quickly. Despite all their differences, the shared an identical hatred for lazy people. Yes, it was odd to have a friendship which originally started out as little more than two people talking to each other about criticisms they saw in people they thought of as lazy and cowardly. But that was how it had started, and it had somehow blossomed from there. 

 

Not only that, but it had stayed strong for the past two years, and would hopefully endure for many more years to come.

 

There was one other person who was part of the telepathy group who Taka hadn’t managed to get very close to. In fact, almost nobody except his twin brother, Hajime, had been able to get through his apathetic exterior.

 

Izuru Kamukura, the Ultimate Hope. The student who had every single talent that had been seen in the school before, possibly even more. He’d barely interacted with anyone outside his class during his first year, leading to a rumor that he didn’t exist.  _ (Nowadays, people knew better, but last year had made him out to be a complete mystery.) _

 

Taka knew better than that; he  _ did  _ exist. And he’d been one of the first people outside of the 77th class to learn of him. It happened last year, when it was almost time for the school to vacate for the summer holidays. Izuru had helped him recover after a particularly nasty incident with the bullies, tending to his wounds. Taka smiled at the memory. He’d been so awed, and Izuru had acted as if it was a normal occurrence, taking it no heed and tending to his wounds swiftly and efficiently. He’d fallen asleep at one point and woken up in the nurse’s office after that, to the faces of his concerned friends.

 

To the ones who weren’t part of their telepathy group, he’d told them about the ambush alone. Mondo had been so angry that it was a miracle that everyone else had been able to restrain him. Although Peko hadn’t been happy either, she helped the others to restrain him. After he’d told her, Gundham and Celestia about it, it had led to another discovery.

 

Both he and Celestia got to hear for the first time about the so-called myth of the school, who was nothing more than an “intelligent antisocial shut-in,” as Celestia elegantly phrased it. Izuru could have a pleasant disposition on rare occasions, but he was usually the most deadpan person one would see in their life. It had been very interesting to hear how he interacted with the rest of his class.

 

He hadn’t expected much further interaction with Izuru after that, but his expectations had been proven wrong.

 

Izuru had done something after that. He had no idea what it truly was or why it had been done, but after that day, the bullies had stopped tormenting him, leaving him alone this year with no signs of ever coming back. 

 

_ (When this first happened, he’d been paranoid that yet another nasty situation would be tossed on him yet again, but when he’d learnt the real reason why, he’d cried tears of thankfulness and joy. When he’d hugged Izuru, he swore that for a split second, the normally impassive boy’s face had gotten an expression of shock before he’d composed himself. Taka considered it a personal victory.) _

 

Then this year, two more red-eyed students had come into the school: Maki Harukawa and Gonta Gokuhara. The moment everyone had set eyes on Gonta it was a unanimous thought that they would protect him from any and all corrupting influences. He was so friendly absolutely no one could dislike him.

 

Maki had been even harder to talk with. The Ultimate Child Caregiver had bee reclusive almost to a fault and had kept her thoughts so guarded that it was nigh impossible to telepathically contact her. 

 

She seemed to be hiding a large secret that she refused to tell anyone as well. It had been difficult to get her to open up, and even then there were still boundaries that she refused to let them cross, but in the end… they managed to be good friends to her. If she had any personal issues she had to deal with, it was fine. They didn’t need to pry into her business like that; it was rude and unnecessary. And Gonta had told them that she was already opening up on her own, with the help of a few people in her class.

 

They were all happy about that.

 

In the end, they all cherished each other.  _ (Though some did it in different ways than others, the intention was always clear.) _ They stuck with each other through the thick and thin, and swore never to lose contact with each other. They were the best friends Taka had ever had. He smiled, feeling reassured.

 

And with that, he ended his final hallway patrol for the day.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it, please give kudos and reviews so I can make the next story in this series even better!


End file.
